Curtis M. Wong of The Huffington Post reports: “Members of NYC’s transgender community and advocates are praising the city council’s vote to pass legislation, making it easier for residents to correct the sex designation on their birth certificates without surgery.” To read more, click here.

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Jesse Bering in the website, The State of the Universe, states: “There are some phrases that should just be done away with, but over time they are used and heard so routinely that we develop a sort of soft spot for them and can’t bear the thought of chopping off their heads. The term ‘sexual preference’—at least when it’s used interchangeably with ‘sexual orientation’—is one of these seemingly harmless phrases whose cultural execution…is long overdue.” He goes on to point out “the obvious fact that sexual orientation is not a choice….” To read more, click here.

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As reported by Chris Hoenig on the website, DiversityInc, the National Center for Education Statistics projects that Latinos, Blacks, Asians and Pacific Islanders, American Indians and biracial students will, when added together, represent 50.2 percent of the 2014–2015 student population. To read more, click here.

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In her latest book, Dr. Lee Ann P. Etscovitz, a marriage and family therapist specializing in LGBTQ issues, takes an unflinching look at her personal struggles with gender identity.

… I asked myself how long I could possibly go on living with my particular life-long secret, namely, my gender confusion. How long could I continue to hide it? How long could I deny myself the gender fulfillment which only I could bring about and which the precariousness of life could deny me before I ever acted?

Etcovitz’s book is available for preview and sale on Amazon.com and will be available for Kindle readers in July 2014.

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The results of a study at the University of British Columbia published recently in the Journal of Preventative Medicine showed students at schools with anti-homophobia policies and gay-straight alliances tended to abuse alcohol less, regardless of sexual orientation. To read more, click here.

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As reported by ABC News, a new Twitter study by assistant professor Monica Stephens and Humboldt State University measured racist and homophobic tweets in the United States. The result is the “Geography of Hate” shown above. To read more, click here.

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Nikolay Alexeyev has been campaigning for years for the right to stage gay parades in Russia

Moscow’s top court has upheld a ban on gay pride marches in the Russian capital for the next 100 years. Earlier Russia’s best-known gay rights campaigner, Nikolay Alexeyev, had gone to court hoping to overturn the city council’s ban on gay parades. The Moscow city government argues that the gay parade would risk causing public disorder and that most Muscovites do not support such an event. To read more, click here.

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Beginning November 2013, Germany will be the first country in Europe to offer a “third gender” distinction on birth certificates. A new German law stipulates that children who are born of indeterminate gender no longer have to be categorized as male or female. Instead, parents can choose to leave the space blank on their child’s birth certificate. The individuals can eventually decide whether to identify as male, female or neither. The measure has a shortcoming, however: those who choose to identify as “blank” will likely encounter a host of bureaucratic headaches when traveling abroad. To read more, click here.

A recent law signed by President Vladimir V. Putin has ignited international condemnation. The new law, nominally aimed at “protecting” children by banning “propaganda on nontraditional sexual relationships,” is widely understood as an effort to suppress homosexuality and Russia’s fledgling gay rights movement. Russia remains a country where discrimination and even violence against gay people are widely tolerated. To read more, click here.

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To one gay soldier, Prince Harry lived up to his duty to protect those in need. A former fellow infantryman is praising the royal for reportedly saving him after six soldiers supposedly threatened to assault him due to his sexuality while their squad was stationed in Canada back in 2008. To read more about the incident, including an excerpt from Lance Corporal James Wharton memoir, Out in the Army, click here.

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Macklemore is a hip-hop artist whose biggest hit is about the second-hand shops where he buys clothes. But he’s also becoming famous for another song, Same Love, which promotes acceptance of LGBTQ people. To read more about Macklemore click here.

You can watch the YouTube video of Same Love below.

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Daniel Mendelsohn, writes about the “coming out” of Anderson Cooper, CNN reporter and talk show host. In a New York Times op-ed piece, Mehdelsohn criticizes Cooper for not sooner speaking up about being a gay man:

You can’t claim to be comfortable with being gay while trying to keep it a secret: When you conceal your sexuality, you’re buying, however unconsciously or reluctantly, into the notion that there is, at some level, something wrong with it.

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The makers of Oreos posted on their Facebook page a special cookie in honor of gay pride. Some commenters have gone so far as to proclaim that eating Oreos is now a sin. Click here to read the comments on BuzzFeed

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According to studies published the April issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, people who repress their own sexual attraction to persons of the same sex are more likely to express hostility toward LGBTQ people. To read the CBS News article, click here.

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A study led by Paul Verhaeghen, a professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Psychology, found that facets of U.S. culture, such as literature, movies, television, radio and the internet, may contribute to the problem of racism, sexism and other “isms” by exhibiting the same stereotypes that society tries to snuff out. To read the story in Science Daily, click here.

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A University of Chicago study shows wide variations in the regional acceptance of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. Acceptance is highest in New England, where 27 percent of adults say they think homosexual relations are “always wrong.” To read more about this CBS News story, click here.

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Patrick Bora, 73 (left), and his partner Jim Darby, 79, show their civil union license at the Cook County Office of Vital Records, Wednesday, June 1, 2011, in Chicago.

Illinois has joined a handful of states and the District of Columbia in providing for civil unions, which give same-sex couples many of the rights and significant legal protections that are afforded to traditionally married men and women. That includes the power to decide medical treatment for an ailing partner and the right to inherit a partner’s property. To read more click here.

To see a listing of states that provide for same-sex marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnership, click here.

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In an article from his blog, Fineness & Accuracy, Scott Madin talks about the difference between saying something that is “offensive,” and saying something that harms others because of racism, sexism, homophobia, and the like. The article adds clarity to the “you’re-being-offensive-too” argument often made when people are rebuked for remarks that reinforce oppression. To read the article, click here.

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What do Mary Daly, Margaret Sanger, Nellie McClung, Martha Griffiths, Gloria Steinem, Geraldine Ferraro, Julie Bindel, Robin Morgan, Germaine Greer, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Janice Raymond, Sheila Jeffreys, and Beth Elliott have in common? According to s. e. smith, “All of these ‘leading lights’ of the feminist movement are contributors to a long and not very proud history of dragging -isms into the feminist movement.” To read smith’s article, click here.

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Catholics are more supportive of legal recognitions of same-sex relationships than members of any other Christian tradition and Americans overall. Nearly three-quarters of Catholics favor either allowing gay and lesbian people to marry (43%) or allowing them to form civil unions (31%). Only 22% of Catholics say there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple’s relationship. To read the full report from the Public Religion Research Institute read here.

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Microaggressions are brief and commonplace verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities—whether intentional or unintentional—that communicate hostile attitudes, slights, or insults toward members of marginalized groups, including people of color, women, and members of the LGBTI community. The Microagressions blog collects and publishes reader-submitted descriptions of microaggressions and the impact the microaggressions had on the people who endured them. Here are two examples:

Look at her. That’s no fair. Why do I have to walk? She’s taking advantage.

—I’m a wheelchair user in a large museum. I felt like my struggles with accessibility were nothing and the young, able-bodied man who said this expected pity.

* * * * * * *

Excuse me, do you speak English?

—Man at the bus stop. I am an Asian American woman. I was reading Jane Austen. In English.

To read the many posts on the blog and perhaps to submit your own, click here.

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The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) today released a comprehensive new report, “Injustice at Every Turn,” revealing the depth of discrimination against transgender and gender non-conforming people in a wide range of areas, including education, health care, employment, and housing. To read more click here.

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A new, landmark study on the relationship between racial justice organizations and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities finds the lack of resources, funding, and community support are obstacles to engagement. The study, titled, “Better Together: Research Findings on the Relationship between Racial Justice Organizations and LGBT Communities,” was produced by Applied Research Center (ARC) in partnership with the Arcus Foundation. To read more and download a copy of the study click here.

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Stereotype threat refers to the risk of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s own group. Research shows that stereotype threat causes decreased performance and distancing from the stereotyped group. Click here to go ReducingStereotypeThreat.org to read more.